Monday, December 16, 2013

Royal Bengal Tigers in Indian ForestsIn
the last 5 years we made a dozen trips to national parks and had 15 tiger
sightings (and saw 20+ tigers) and three leopards. On our maiden trip to Kenya,
we saw 6 Cheetahs and over a dozen lions. On a trip to Canada, we saw 13 bears
(2 were grizzly bears). On a night snorkelling tour in Hawaii, we saw 2 dozen
Manta Rays at close quarters. On another snorkelling trip in Belize, we swam
with nurse sharks and sting rays. I guess you can say that we are generally lucky with sightings. But is
it all about luck? Read about a few of my theories on how to maximize your
jungle experience.

Dawn
and Dusk: The
best time to see tigers is either early in the morning or late in the evening because
it satisfies Murphy's law - "Thy shall see a tiger only in poor light
conditions". Photos come out bad and shaky and in my case, the husband
will delete all photos unless the eyes of the tiger are in focus!! It is hard
enough to zoom in, focus, frame the photo without the dozen other jeeps but he
also wants sharp eyes. I don't know what the deal is with him and eyes. I think
tigers are all about stripes and I manage to get those in focus. I also love
zooming out and photographing tigers in their habitat rather than zooming in
all the way. (It is
also a subtle and incredibly clever way to convince the husband that bigger and
expensive lenses are not necessary). 9/10 times when you see a tiger, light
is low or there are bushes/other jeeps blocking the view or the tiger is showing his butt. We
have tiger pictures of all the above, especially the butt. I am not kidding. On
a recent trip, we had a tiger sighting for almost 45 minutes resulting in
hundreds of tiger butt pictures (which were obviously deleted because of the
"eye" criteria and just for the heck of it, I made up a rule that I
will not post any pictures with its genitals in focus (or family jewels if you
prefer that word). Anyway, going back to the dawn/dusk theory - the best thing
you can do is be the first jeep to enter the forest. This way, you can look for
fresh pug marks (and poop in some cases). On a recent trip to Tadoba Andhari
Tiger Reserve, we tracked pugmarks for over 1 km. The tigress zigzagged her way
on the jeep track all the way to Tadoba lake. A dozen other jeeps were already
in the area. We drove up and down that road a few times and spotted the tigress
resting in a pond next to a lot of bushes (of course the lighting was poor). So,
every time we go to tiger reserves, we wake up early and try to be one of the
first few to enter the park.

On
the flipside, a family had woken up late and entered the park at 9 am one
morning and 10 minutes later, saw a tigress with its 3 grown cubs!! When we
were driving out of Dhilala forest at noon one winter, we saw a tiger sun
bathing at 1 pm in the afternoon (it was sitting against the light).

On our last trip to Tadoba, out of the 4 morning safaris, we saw tigers a total of zero times!!

Tigress P2, Tadoba Tiger Reserve, Nov 2013

Picture or Painting, Tadoba Tiger Reserve, Nov 2013

Ramganga River, Corbett National Park, Tiger, March 2009

Focus
on a small area:This
is the eternal traveler's dilemma - stay in one place and see it well or go to
several areas and get variety. Tigers have territories and if you talk to a
good guide, they will tell you where they are and if the tigers give regular
sightings. Most popular tiger reserves have 20-100+ tigers but only a few of
them are people-friendly and give regular sightings. Your best bet is to pick
one or two territories instead of driving the entire park in the hope that a
tiger steps on to the jeep tracks at the same exact moment that you are on it. In
Corbett last year, a number of sightings were happening right next to the
Dhikala forest rest house, so on one of the safari's we stayed put. Luckily for us, we
heard some commotion and drove in that direction and saw a handsome tiger cross
the path. In Tadoba, we used the same strategy. Our guide had heard lots of
alarm calls as he walked from the village and we saw fresh pug marks. Instead
of spending 5 hours driving around the park and getting our backs busted, we
decided to drive on the road up and down for the entire time and ended up
seeing the tigress and her 2 cubs sitting inside the bushes. In Pench, a tiger had a kill the previous day and the guide felt that there was a high probability of seeing it in the same area. We did the rounds and saw this handsome fellow sitting inside the bushes. If you think you
will get bored seeing the same piece of forest again and again, you are so
wrong. There are so many experiences waiting to happen. Like for example.....smelling
tiger pee! They say it smells like buttered popcorn (how is that even possible?). On one safari when nothing much was going on, a guide in Pench National Park was showing how a tiger marks its territory
by scratching and peeing on barks of trees. Apparently, just by sniffing the urine, a tiger can tell the age, gender and reproductive capacity of the other tiger. We were very close to a tree that was recently
sprayed on and the guide asked me to smell it which I readily did and I have to
say....that popcorn thing is a bit of a stretch. Saru refused to put his nose anywhere near the tiger urine.

Tiger, Dhikala Chaurs, Corbett National Park, Nov 2012

Tiger, Pench National Park, Jan 2012

Guides in Ranthambore had the exact opposite
strategy and wanted to cover every single inch of the forest. Drive like you
are on a race track and hopefully somewhere somebody would have seen a tiger
and you can piggyback on their sighting. On our trip in Dec 2009, it was dry
and cold and they drove us around like maniacs. All we got was a thick layer of dust on us. When you drive so
fast, you miss most of what you came to experience in the forest - the fragrant
forest air, beautiful species of trees, flowers and birds. In the case where
you don't see a tiger, you end up seeing nothing when you zoom past everything.
After a couple of safari's I was so irritated, I made the driver go slow. After
a while, we saw pugmarks. The guide and the driver were pissed " If not
for you, we would have seen this tiger" they yelled at me. After that,
they drove faster, and into another zone. Luckily
for them and I guess us, we ran into dozens of jeeps waiting to watch a tiger
drink water in a pond. It was a beautiful sighting of almost half hour and some
of our best close-ups are from this one. It was getting late and while they
were rushing us out, we saw another tiger in a picture perfect setting.

Ranthambore National Park, Dec 2009

Picture or Painting, Ranthambore National Park, Dec 2009

Patience:If going to a wild life reserve were like a
zoo with predictable sightings, there would be no charm. The uncertainty is
what makes it so exciting. Part of the fun of being in a jungle is to put on the hunting cap and pretend to understand what goes on. If you were ever in a jeep when you hear alarm
calls, you will know what I mean. Guides and drivers start to interpret the
calls "maybe it just had a kill and
had its fill and went to sleep, maybe it is moving (if other animals start
giving alarm calls), maybe it is trying to cross the road to get to the water
hole (if calls are coming very close to the road) and they go on and on. Most
of it is bullshit but it is fun figuring out scenarios. In Tadoba, we heard
Sambar deer alarm calls. They came from very close quarters. The tiger was
somewhere near but we could not see or hear it. We switched off the jeep and
waited. After a few minutes, the alarm calls stopped. Jeeps got bored and drove
away. I believe in the bird in hand theory, so we decided to wait. Nothing
happened for 20 minutes and there was no movement, so we went a little ahead to check out the fire line when we saw another jeep. They mouthed the words
"Bear". We heard something trampling on twigs inside the bushes and
the excitement level built up. Out came the binoculars and we combed every
inch of the bushes looking for a fluffy black bear. Bears are really shy and we
were not sure if it would come out, especially with 3 jeeps around. Nothing
happened for a few minutes and then, out of nowhere this huge male tiger walks
out without a care. I have no idea why the jeep thought it was a bear. He goes
and marks his territory on one side, then moves to the other side, pees a
little bit there and then the other side and pees there too. For the next 45
minutes he zigzags left and right of the road marking his territory. We
followed him for almost 1 km.

Leopard face, Tiger at Tadoba Tiger Reserve, Nov 2013

Leopard face, Tiger at Tadoba Tiger Reserve, Nov 2013

Leopard face, Tiger at Tadoba Tiger Reserve, Nov 2013

On another day when we heard alarm calls, we
waited for almost an hour and nothing happened. Let me tell you, it is not easy
to stay in one place and do nothing. We all mouth dialogues about how much we love being in
nature, but when there is nothing happening, it is quite boring. To make
the matters worse, we suddenly decide to take an interest in trees (by 'we', I
of course mean the husband and I say 'we' because sitting in the jeep, I am captive
audience) . So there we are, staring at leaves and barks of trees and trying to
remember the names. Some are common enough like teak, tamarind, jamun,
crocodile bark etc but 'we' of coursewant to learn aboutthenot-so-common
ones too. The lesson starts with "Bhirra" and "Bheda" and
"Bheria". Then there is a "Harra" and a "Dhora".
Pop-quizzes ensue in which I fail miserably and give up, but the husband is
relentless (no surprises). A few funny stories about drunken monkeys and
villagers ( drunk from liquor made of Mahua flowers) were the saving grace of
the exercise.

Other jeeps got tired and left the area but
we were busy learning that the leaves of "Bheria" are good insect repellents
and the flowers of Mahua can be brewed into alcohol. The jeeps that left found
out about a leopard that was sitting on a tree near the check post. They rushed
there and got fantastic images of the leopard. We came back with half baked
knowledge on trees and a recipe for local liquor. Another morning, while we waited at a spot, a
jeep went ahead and saw a tiger. So much for my 'patience' theory.

Positive
Thinking:This might seem like bullshit to you, but over the years
I have come to believe it. Don't you have an annoying set of friends who claim
"We always see a tiger or a leopard" and invariably come back
from trips with photographs to prove. The set of friends who say "We never
get lucky" in most cases end up not seeing much. As corny as it sounds,
good things mostly happen to people when they believe that good things will
happen to them. I have always been an optimistic person, but one person who
really reinforced this theory was my friend T. On our last trip to Kabini in
May 2011, weather played a spoilsport and it was cloudy and rainy most days.
Forget seeing cats, we did not even see/hear any birds. Kabini is supposed to
have the largest number of Asiatic elephants but even they migrated away that
season. 3 safaris and we had seen nothing and I was losing my patience. T
however, kept saying "We will see a tiger or a leopard this trip". He
didn't just say it, he believed it. He didn't just believe it, he was convinced
about it and that too with an un-wavering confidence. Every time I would
complain about the weather and bad luck, he would repeat the same thing again
and again. At some point we also began to believe it and were very alert to all
the sounds and movements. That is the thing with belief system. If you know you
are going to see something, you pay a lot more attention that if you were
convinced you won't. On the 4th safari, we heard monkey alarm calls. Monkeys
get spooked easily and their alarms are not very reliable unlike Sambar alarm
calls which almost always means that a tiger is in the vicinity. After a few
minutes, and no sign of any activity, our guide wanted to move. We said
"NO". The calls continued. We could spot the monkey high up in the
tree and it was looking down at the forest floor and was frightened about
something. We must have been there almost 1/2 hour. Jeeps came and left and our
guide asked us 5 times if we wanted to leave, but we were sure we would see
something, so we stayed put. Out of nowhere, a leopard scrambled and climbed up a tree. Another Leopard was on the
floor and growling at it. It was a mother-child pair and the guide later told
us that the mother was trying to push the child to leave her and go out on its
own. Lighting of course was poor, but we managed to get this image.

Leopard, Kabini National Park, May 2012

Just
Go!!:As you can see from above, for every strategy, I can give
you examples proving and disproving it. There are no guarantees in a jungles.
The only way to make sure you have great experiences is to "Just go".
The tag line might seem like a bad Nike commercial, but it is true. What a lot
of us lucky travelers won't publicize is the fact that to get those sightings,
we go to the jungles a LOT and when we go, we stay for a minimum of 4-6
safaris. If each safari is 3-4 hours, it means that we spend 12-24 hours a trip
outdoors. A number of times, tiger sightings are just for a few seconds or
minutes. We have had maybe 2-3 sightings that have been over 20 minutes. In
spite of that, it is a lot of fun to be in jungle.On a sudden whim, we went to Pench National Park in Jan 2012 and had the sighting of a lifetime. Nothing can prepare you for seeing 5 fully grown cubs and its mom just a few feet away from you. In Bandipur, we had a dream sighting of a tigress and its 4 cute little cubs cross the road in front of our jeep. On the same trip, we saw a pack of wild dogs chase a Leopard and its cub. In a previous trip to Tadoba, we saw a sloth bear and its 3 cubs drinking water in a pond. Another was cooling in a waterhole next to the road and darted across when it saw our jeep. All these experiences happened because we went and endured many rides with no sightings. If a person sees a tiger once, it does not mean that they won't go on the next safari. Every ride offers a different experience, a different learning. I like these trips because it really helps us slow down from the fast paced life of a city. It is great to switch off the phones and focus on nature every once in a while. There is a whole beautiful eco-system out there that works in perfect sync and you start to notice and enjoy simple things. That is what life is about isn't it?

20 comments:

Nice post Vamsee .. I really love the way you write .. Am not sure if I will ever go on a safari but I enjoyed reading your tips. I had been to Kabini in July this year and I really enjoyed the gloomy weather and bird watching. The river is so beautiful!

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About This Blog

Traveling is not just a hobby, it is a way of our life now. Every few months we set off to explore new destinations and come back with some great photographs and stories. This blog is our way of organizing pictures and memories from those trips.